Wednesday, September 23, 2015

The article below first appeared in Sierra Magazine.1 Though the subject is climate change nearly all the arguments apply equally to advocates of fighting breeds, many of whom ignore or deny that pit bulls are disproportionately responsible for fatal attacks on humans.

It's doubtful that the author, Jake Abrahamson, thought his article would reverberate in the world of pit bull politics. It may be that he would not agree with our appropriation of his ideas about climate change deniers. But many of us who dwell in the galaxy of pit bull politics believe that the pit bull wars, like climate change, constitute a new cultural war.

In a discussion of fatal dog attack statistics, you will often find the advocate of fighting breeds peering intently at an invisible spot on the wallpaper. If you show a pit bull denier statistics which prove that pit bulls and other fighting breeds are responsible for nearly all fatal attacks on humans, the denier's eyes quickly glaze over. This is a dispute in which facts are all-important but to the deniers the facts are irrelevant.

Following the Sierra article are brief excerpts from two previous SRUV posts about denial and the culture wars.

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What Makes Climate Deniers Tick
Hint: It's not the science; it's the culture
by Jake Abrahamson

No matter how many scientific papers point toward climate change, some people refuse to be convinced. A PEW Research Center poll in June found that American's views on whether the planet is heating up have barely changed since 2006, despite growing scientific consensus and an increasing number of climate-related disasters. The reason for that stasis, Andrew Hoffman argues in How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate (Stanford University Press, 2015), is that a person's belief in climate change has little to do with an assessment of the science and everything to do with their preexisting values, social web, and world view. Climate skeptics are often focused on "protecting deeply held values they believe are under attack," he writes. For stakeholders in dirty fuels or proponents of limited government, acceptance of climate change would require a dramatic reorientation of their values and sense of self, because dealing with the issue will likely involve the end of fossil fuels and greater regulatory powers for government.

Hoffman, a professor of sustainable enterprise at the University of Michigan, first lays out the psychological and social biases people bring to the climate discussion and then suggests techniques for making that conversation more productive. (A combination of empathy and clever framing is key.) This slender, practical volume will aid anyone hoping to sway climate deniers -- whether on facebook, from a podium, or over a beer.

We can be grateful to Mr. Homans for confronting the larger issue; in the early pages he notes that pit bulls are a political issue. This is an insight of great moral courage. We have suffered through four great conflicts during our cultural wars: abortion, gun rights, immigration, and gay rights. Now we may be embarking on our fifth. The politics of dogs are a reflection, distilled and distorted, of the politics of people. Like our previous cultural wars the problem of pit bulls is intractable because it crosses social, economic, gender, and educational boundaries, and because our convictions about pit bulls are based on emotions and faith. Which means that, much like the previous culture wars, the pit bull wars seem intractable.

Deniers: first there were those who denied the Earth was round. Then there were those who denied the Earth circled the Sun. There were some who refused to believe that Apollo 11 landed on the moon, but instead was filmed on a sound stage or in New Mexico. In our times there have been the Holocaust deniers and the Climate Change deniers.

Now we have the Huffington Post, with their stable of writers who deny that pit bulls, in disproportionate numbers, launch unprovoked attacks and kill or maim members of their human family or a More Vulnerable Animal Companion.

* * * * *Notes:1 Sierra is the magazine of the Sierra Club. The article appeared in the September/October 2015 issue.

Statistics:

Statistics quoted on SRUV are from the nation's authoritative source for current dog attack statistics, the 32+ year, continuously updated Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada.

Definitions:
SRUV uses the definition of "pit bull" as found in the Omaha Municipal Code Section 6-163. As pit bulls are increasingly crossed with exotic mastiffs, Catahoula Leopard Dogs and other breeds, the vernacular definition of "pit bull" must be made even more inclusive.

Sources cited by news media sometimes refer to "Animal Advocates" or sometimes "Experts." In many cases these words are used to refer to single-purpose pit bull advocates who have never advocated for any other breeds or species of animals. Media would be more accurate to refer to these pit bull advocates as advocates of fighting breeds.

Similarly, in many cases pit bull advocates refer to themselves as "dog lovers" or "canine advocates" and media often accepts this usage. The majority of these pit bull advocates are single-purpose advocates of fighting breeds.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

The Fall pit bull season has gotten off to a quick start in Michigan, with the locals amassing an early 3-0 record. The early scores are highlighted below. A number of attacks against More Vulnerable Animal Companions and officers of the law (and very likely other unreported attacks against humans) have been omitted.

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"The dog attacked, destroying approximately 70 percent of her face."

Kyla Kelly, 9 yo; Warren, Michigan

On August 7, 2015, a pit bull belonging to Matt Abare escaped from its home and attacked Kyla Kelly. Kyla was rushed to St John Hospital and Medical Center and faces years of reconstructive surgery.

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Alecia Finch, attacked September 2, 2015Photo by Nick Gonzales, MLive

The dog, Max, had bitten a 12-year-old boy about 90 minutes before he turned on Alecia, according to a Jackson police report.

. . . [Alecia] went to Allegiance Health shortly after the attack and was transferred to C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, where she underwent plastic surgery on her face and received 50 to 75 stitches. Alecia required several rounds of rabies shots as the dog was not vaccinated.

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On September 10, 2015, an Eaton County lawn service employee was attacked by a pit bull. The Lansing State Journal filed a brief account of the attack, based on information from the Sheriff's Department. SRUV wrote to the LSJ journalist with a request for additional information. Our letter, in a slightly edited form, is copied below:

According to the account published in the LSJ, "The deputy arrived to find the dog still biting and dragging the victim in the back yard." This implies the attack lasted for a few minutes, at a minimum. The wounds would therefore have been severe.

Was the employee a man or a woman? Were there dismemberments or amputations?

Whose dog was it -- did it belong to the property owner or a neighbor? Have charges been filed? Was the dog licensed? Neutered?

Does the company that employed the victim have insurance which covers the employee's medical expenses?

We would appreciate the courtesy of a prompt reply.
The Editors

* * * * *

SRUV has yet to receive a reply.

With a 3-0 record the Michigan pit bulls are off to a devastating Fall season. We can expect dozens of similar attacks before the end of the year, leaving in their wake a toll of grief that is largely unacknowledged by newspapers, city councils, county commissions, and state legislators.

Statistics quoted on SRUV are from the nation's authoritative source for current dog attack statistics, the 30+ year, continuously updated Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada.View or download the current PDF

Definitions:
SRUV uses the definition of "pit bull" as found in the Omaha Municipal Code Section 6-163. As pit bulls are increasingly crossed with exotic mastiffs, Catahoula Leopard Dogs and other breeds, the vernacular definition of "pit bull" must be made even more inclusive.

Sources cited by news media sometimes refer to "Animal Advocates" or sometimes "Experts." In many cases these words are used to refer to single-purpose pit bull advocates who have never advocated for any other breeds or species of animals. Media would be more accurate to refer to these pit bull advocates as advocates of fighting breeds.

Similarly, in many cases pit bull advocates refer to themselves as "dog lovers" or "canine advocates" and media often accepts this usage. The majority of these pit bull advocates are single-purpose advocates of fighting breeds.

Friday, September 4, 2015

In the summer and early fall of 2015 pit bulls attacked North and South Carolinians at an unprecedented rate. The horrible news came with such frequency that it was difficult to know if we were reading about today's attack or yesterday's, or the attack the day before that or a forthcoming attack. Reading the news became an exercise in controlling fear, not unlike reading a Stephen King novel or watching a Wes Craven movie.

The attacks began on June 7 in Mountain Home, NC, when 6-year old Joshua Strother was killed by a neighbor's pit bull. On July 26 48-year-old Katherine Rizk of Charleston, SC, was attacked by her husband's pit bull. According to a witness, the dog

dragged Rizk around three houses . . . . I couldn’t believe her own dog would do those things to her. I need to remove that scene from my brain.

Ms Rizk suffered wounds to her head, torso, legs, and one arm was amputated. According to the police report, Ms Rizk's husband arrived a short time later and initially declined to relinquish the pet.

Katherine and Mahmoud Rizk

After a three-week hiatus the attacks resumed with dizzying intensity. On August 22, 25-year-old Porsche Nicole Carter was killed by her pit bull in Spartanburg, SC; her mother and a roommate were also injured by their pit bull. On August 24, 48-year-old Cathy Wheatcraft of Mocksville, NC, was killed at her mailbox and a neighbor injured by another neighbor's pit bull.

Porche Nicole Carter, d. August 22, 2015

On the following day a tragedy was averted when a deputy interrupted a pit bull attack on the dog's owner and her roommate in Greenville County, SC. On the day after that a pit bull attacked three people at the Travelers Inn Motel in Four Oaks, one of them seriously. On the same day a family pit bull in Fayetteville, NC attacked an 18-month old toddler, who is reportedly "fighting for his life."

"Smootchie, Smootchie"

Deniers: first there were those who denied the Earth was round. Then there were those who denied the Earth circled the Sun. There were some who refused to believe that Apollo 11 landed on the moon, but instead was filmed on a sound stage or in New Mexico. In our own era there have been the Holocaust deniers and the Climate Change deniers.

Now we have the Huffington Post, with their stable of writers who deny that pit bulls, in disproportionate numbers, launch unprovoked attacks and kill or maim members of their human family, or a More Vulnerable Animal Companion.2

A recent example of the Huffington Post's advocacy of fighting breeds was published on August 27th, as the week of carnage in the Carolinas came to a close. Associate Editor Kimberly Yam, with the assistance of video producer Oliver Noble, published a video showing children and adults kissing and cuddling pit bulls.

Such callous indifference to the suffering and grief of the victims has become routine at the Huffington Post; indeed we have come to expect it. And yet this most recent example is different. The number of attacks in the Carolinas, the immediacy and the severity of them, coupled with the absolute lack of compassion for the victims on the part of Ms Yam and the Huffington Post, combine to make Ms Yam's article morally offensive. The article degrades the humanity not only of Ms Yam and the Huffington Post, but of all of us who happened upon it by chance.

* * * * *Notes:1 SRUV is indebted to the anonymous Craigslist poster from Eugene, OR, for the "Carolinas Under Siege" meme. A cached version of the Craigslist post can be viewed at https://goo.gl/ggE02l2 This is not to infer that pit bull denial is in any way comparable or equivalent to the denial of the genocide of millions of humans by the Third Reich.

Sources:Pit bull attack victims on 'long road' to recovery
August 29, 2015; WYFF 4 (Greenville, SC) "The dog ripped off about 99 percent of her left hand. The first surgery removed it completely," Dixon said. "Her second surgery removed the rest of the arm halfway to the elbow."

Definitions:
SRUV uses the definition of "pit bull" as found in the Omaha Municipal Code Section 6-163. As pit bulls are increasingly crossed with exotic mastiffs, Catahoula Leopard Dogs and other breeds, the vernacular definition of "pit bull" must be made even more inclusive.

Sources cited by news media sometimes refer to "Animal Advocates" or sometimes "Experts." In many cases these words are used to refer to single-purpose pit bull advocates who have never advocated for any other breeds or species of animals. Media would be more accurate to refer to these pit bull advocates as advocates of fighting breeds.

Similarly, in many cases pit bull advocates refer to themselves as "dog lovers" or "canine advocates" and media often accepts this usage. The majority of these pit bull advocates are single-purpose advocates of fighting breeds.